Morrissey began his Broadway debut with an a capella bit to pithily capture the moment, singing "There is a light that never goes out on Broadway" to the tune of the George Benson classic "On Broadway."
Yes, the outspoken, anti-establishment leader of The Smiths, the king of the new wave outsiders, had now been welcomed on Broadway, with a seven-show run through May 11 at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre, and it was on his terms. There were homages to Morrissey's past in the crowd _ guys wearing the giant, unfashionable hearing aids he used to sport, many T-shirts declaring "Meat Is Murder" and more than a few pompadours.
"I'm very pleased to be here for many, many obvious reasons," he said later, before rolling into an upbeat version of "Hairdresser on Fire."
And for his 90-minute show, Morrissey seemed intent on bringing as much of his distinctive, nonconformist style to Broadway, with photos of author James Baldwin and actor James Dean _ or, during "The Bullfighter Dies," bloodied bulls and gored bullfighters _ projected behind him and his five-piece band as they delivered mostly faithful versions of his classics with The Smiths and as a solo artist.
In fact, the night's best moments came when they strayed from the beloved text. The new thunderous ending of "How Soon Is Now?" fit nicely with Morrissey's angrier-than-usual delivery of the club anthem. It was now a warning about wasting time punctuated by pounding drums, rather than an ethereal, echoing-guitar moment that vanished into the night. And when he slipped bits of the Italian classic "Quando, Quando, Quando" into the already-beautiful "Everyday Is Like Sunday," it was a lovely moment. He also offered his take on The Pretenders' "Back on the Chain Gang," introducing the Chrissie Hynde classic as a song "written by one of the greatest thinkers of the 20th Century."
Though Morrissey has lined up his most commercial album in years _ the covers collection "California Son" due out May 24, complete with high-profile collaborators like Green Day's Billie Joe Armstrong on the cover of The 5th Dimension's "Wedding Bell Blues" _ he only played one song from it, his version of Jobriath's "Morning Starship." Perhaps he's saving those songs for his upcoming tour with Interpol?
Morrissey didn't use his Broadway debut for a radical re-imagining of his catalog the way other artists, from Bruce Springsteen to Duran Duran, have done. However, maybe for him, simply being there was radical enough.
